Report: Windows Phone growth in the UK is at the expense of Android

Windows Phone has struggled in the past to gain traction and attract consumers with big brand apps and hardware. Nokia gave the platform a boost in 2011, and HTC, Samsung and Huawei have stepped up their game with Windows Phone 8 handsets. So with new hardware, a more mature operating system and marketing campaigns, how's the adoption going? We have some news for the UK.

Almost one-third of new Windows Phone owners in the UK came from competing platforms, according to sales estimates from Kantar. The company reports that 700,000 new users jumped aboard the past year, in the UK alone. The data reveals that the Nokia Lumia 800 and HTC 8X both accounted for six percent of UK smartphone sales during three months ending January 2013 - up from 2.4 percent in the same period last year.

Unfortunately we're not looking at a huge success story as Windows Phone is still trailing behind iOS and Android, but with 30 percent of new Windows Phone owners noted to have moved across from other platforms, Microsoft is clearly making progress. How does this break down between competitors? 17 percent from Android, 6 percent from BlackBerry and 2 percent from iOS. Also, 26 percent made the switch from Symbian.

Kantar's global consumer insight director at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, Dominic Sunnebo had the following to comment on the find:

"The fact that nearly one in five new customers switched from an Android device should give Microsoft, and its partners, confidence that its OS has what it takes to bring the fight to more established platforms. As almost 30 percent of its customers switch from rival OSes, the worry that Microsoft will have to rely on attracting the dwindling pool of first-time smartphone buyers to drive future growth is reduced."

In the last 3 weeks or so i have dozens of people say to me "is that the new windows phone?" a lady today said "its supposed to be better than the iphone, what do you think?" i will let you guess what my response was.

They're still selling the Lumia 800? I fear this might be short-term gain, long-term backfire! Seriously, they need to stop pushing WP 7.5/7.8 unless they're upfront with customers that it is not a future-proof platform but I doubt it. Don't take this as a stab against WP 7.5/7.8 as I have one myself, but it's more beneficial at this point to push consumers towards WP8 devices.

Let's be honest, it's Nokia driving this growth. I read elsewhere that 14% of UK smartphones sales were Windows Phones in the last quater. Since Nokia are the major advertisers on the telly, and sightings of WP in the wild have all been 920's I'd love to know the OEM split for the UK in the last 3 months of WP sales.
Good news though! Greater share might lead to us getting those last few major apps and not being left behind with the new ones.

At least three of my friends here in the UK have moved from an iPhone to the Lumia WP8 range. People know of the Lumia brand and my friends all love them. Good to know in the UK at least they are taking off!

iSheep? Do we need to call people who use different phone names? Maybe they just don't care. I have a 8X and love it, but at the end of the day it's just a phone. I thought WP users are better than that.
And I certainly wouldn't call my nearest friend names.

I must confess I've used the term 'iSheep' myself, but you're right of course. We should be able to talk about our devices on their merits without name-calling. We all must acknowledge, however, that iPhone 5 fans have been taken in all too readily by the marketing hype of Apple, feeling they MUST have the latest Apple device at premium prices, even thought it does not advance the technology one bit and actually plays catch up with advances adopted long ago by other vendors, like LTE.
As for me, I won't be adding to the $120 billion Apple has sitting in cash. I'm very happy with my Nokia Lumia 920, and happy to see my prediction that Android would lose market share to Windows coming true. I was one of the converts to WP8 and I'm not turning back.

Are you the developer for some of the apps I've seen in the Marketplace? I hope not;
Developers to be a bit more professional when posting comments - you are representing your brand, and poorly expressed/offensive comments are off putting.

The OS is better than the janky android platform, save for the storage management which is an absolute disaster (see, e.g. "Other"). If they really want to peel away customers though, MS needs to support its own OS by updating apps from its own brands for WP8 on the same time frame as other devices, offering new xbox games and expediting the review process. Instead, MS prioritizes iphone and android.
With 7.5GB sitting in "Other", skype years behind the android and iphone version and a terrible music app, I'm growing frustrated. MS doesn't seem to care about WP8. I don't miss android but my phone is becoming unusable because of the storage issue, the promise of seamless cross device synchronicity is not coming to fruition (I mean, that Windows Phone app in W8 is utter garbage), hardware specs are limited and behind the state of the art and app situation is not improving. I see little movement from MS to add 1080p support, no app support from MS teams at Xbox and skype and no coming fix to the storage disaster; the fluid OS can't overcome these limitations.
I bought a device on the release date but I'm going back by 11/13 if I don't see a commitment from MS to its own platform.

Absolutely agree with you! Nokia provides so much contribution for WP market grouth, but seems MS doesn't care about their own products AT ALL. Not only Xbox and Skype under consideration, but, for example, MS developed Facebook app, which is still so aweful.

Great news. I only hope this means more useful apps of a high quality. Only recent addition to the store was the RBS banking app. Want to see more big name brands come to the store asap. More users can only make this more likely.

The bulk Windows Phone growth won't be in the consumer sector at all, but rather in business. We are just now starting to see large business dump BlackBerry for Windows Phone and the associated lack of expensive licensing that most business users are oblivious to, but IT, CIO's, and CFO's know all too well. Then you have Apple, which has never quite presented a truly manageable business platform from an iT perspective. Are there tools that you can use to help? Sure, but the point is that it never quite feels robust and never really a true part of Windows-based environments. Android? Right, no. When end-users see how they can open and edit Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote (one of my favorite things that Microsoft ever developed) right on the phone, they start to get really interested. Then, you have the business-relevance of Office 365 and the fact that Windows phone is THE best device for that environment... And you have true cloud enablement. Just wait. Many businesses STILL haven't seen this value, but word is starting to get around. Windows Phone is certainly fun, but it's inherently "built for business" like no other platform out there.